NSCAT

Mission Specification

The NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) was launched aboard the Japanese satellite Midori, also known as the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS), on August 16, 1996. The NSCAT mission was a partnership between the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan, NASA, and JPL. Since the short-lived success of the Seasat scatterometer in 1978, the research and development of the NSCAT instrument resulted in a much anticipated expectation to provide the first long-term data record of global high resolution ocean surface wind vector measurements. The unfortunate premature power failure of the ADEOS spacecraft resulted in a termination of the NSCAT mission on June 30, 1997. While in operation, NSCAT provided approximately 70% global ice-free ocean coverage every day with a measurement footprint of 25 km. Nearly 10 months of continuous global ocean surface wind vector data was provided by NSCAT, representing an unprecedented achievement by NASA.